Problems with MessageQueue

[Alice Boxhall <ab...@aconex.com>]

Hi,

We are running ActiveMQ 3.2.1 with the attached activemq.xml.

Initially everything works fine, then after some time (our very small 
sample gives us an average of two days or so) the QueueBrowser won't 
pick up new messages. Even though we can see messages persisted in the 
database for the queue we want, the QueueBrowser doesn't seem to pick 
them up.

ActiveMQ is started with the following block of code:

                String brokerURL = appProp.getProperty(BROKER_URL); // 
reliable:tcp://index1.mel.prod.aconex.com:62002 ; a machine on the same 
network
                setBrokerURL(brokerURL);
                String username = appProp.getProperty(USERNAME); // blank
                setUsername(username);
                String password = appProp.getProperty(PASSWORD); // blank
                setPassword(password);
                if (StringUtils.isBlank(brokerURL) || 
brokerURL.equals(EMPTY_BROKER_URL)) {
                    LOG.error("ActiveMQ Broker URL is NOT CORRECT!  Will 
not be able to broadcast stuff via JMS");
                    throw new IllegalArgumentException(
                            "ActiveMQ Broker URL is NOT CORRECT!  Will 
not be able to broadcast stuff via JMS");
                } else {
                    LOG.info("Using broker URL '" + brokerURL + "' to 
connect to ActiveMQ");
                    if (StringUtils.isBlank(username) || 
username.equals(EMPTY_USERNAME)
                            || StringUtils.isBlank(password) || 
password.equals(EMPTY_PASSWORD)) {
                        LOG.info("Not using username or password to 
connect to ActiveMQ");
                        connectionFactory = new 
ActiveMQConnectionFactory(brokerURL);
                    } else {
                        connectionFactory = new 
ActiveMQConnectionFactory(username, password,
                                brokerURL);
                    }
                    LOG.info("ConnectionFactory created successfully.");
                }

The place where we are seeing the problems is in a run loop for a thread:

           outerwhile: while (true) {
                // need to create a browser each time through
                QueueBrowser browser = null;
                PdfRequest pdfRequest = null;

                try {
                    browser = session.createBrowser(waitQueue);

                    Enumeration msgs = null;
                    msgs = browser.getEnumeration();

                    // snip...

                    while (msgs.hasMoreElements()) {
                        if(LOG.isDebugEnabled()) {
                            LOG.debug("Found some jobs to inspect");
                        }

                        Object o = msgs.nextElement();

                        if(!(o instanceof ObjectMessage)) {
                            LOG.warn("Non ObjectMessage object found on 
waiting requests queue: " + o.getClass());
                            continue;
                        }

                        ObjectMessage message = (ObjectMessage) o;

                        if(LOG.isDebugEnabled()) {
                            LOG.debug(message.toString());
                        }

                        // snip...

                       
                        if (pdfRequestStatus != PdfGenerator.REQUEST_PENDING
                                && pdfRequestStatus != 
PdfGenerator.UNKNOWN) {
                           
                            // snip...

                            if (browser != null) {
                                if(LOG.isDebugEnabled()) {
                                    LOG.debug("Closing the QueueBrowser 
so we can consume the message");
                                }
                                try {
                                    browser.close();
                                } catch (Exception e) {
                                    LOG.error("Failed to close the 
QueueBrowser", e);
                                }
                                browser = null;
                            }

                            consumeRequestFromWaitQueue(pdfRequest);
                            LOG.info("Exiting inspection loop, will 
process others next iteration");
                            continue outerWhile;

                        } // end if
                    } // end inner while
                } catch (Throwable e) {
                    LOG.error("Failure during run loop to inspect the 
wait queue", e);
                } finally {
                    if (browser != null) {
                        try {
                            browser.close();
                        } catch (Exception e) {
                            LOG.error("Failed to close the 
QueueBrowser", e);
                        }
                    }
                }

                // snipped sleep for 5000 msec

            } // end outerwhile

Where we would expect to see debug messages telling us that there were 
waiting messages (which we know are there as we can see them persisted 
to the DB) there is nothing, although we are getting debug messages 
telling us that the loop is running. I have double-checked that wherever 
a QueueBrowser is used it is closed in a finally block as it is in the 
sample code above.

Would someone be able to point out if there are any obvious problems in 
our set-up, or are there any known issues which would cause this behaviour?